Child Rapist Found The Object Of Her Anger And It's Not Herself

Sheila Marie Sikat volunteered to babysit her sister's four-year-old daughter, used Rohypnol to knock the girl out and videotaped her husband, David Hwang, while he molested and sodomized the child on several occasions.

But the videos didn't help her cause. She had enthusiastic sex with her husband in plain view of the little girl being molested. At one point, she said, "Stick it in her butt." And, of course, she held the camera during the abuse that included sticking a pen inside an infant's rectum, and is seen observing the rapes without the slightest protest. The couple also can be heard discussing if the drug had knocked out victims.

Eight years after her trial, Sikat has found the object of her anger and it's not Hwang or herself. It's Superior Court Judge Gary Paer. In 2008, Paer sentenced the rapist to a term of 50 years to life and couldn't believe that the defendant's family, including the mother of one of the victims, wanted her released from custody without a day in prison.

I recall the shock on Paer's face. He mentioned that commenters on related newspaper articles wanted the death penalty. The judge also said the graphic video evidence against her required a severe punishment.

Beginning in 2011, Sikat complained to federal judges that Paer violated her right to a fair sentencing because he'd become biased by reading news coverage.

"The trial court admitted on the record that it had reviewed outside sources such as news reports, blog commentaries and information from the Internet prior to arriving at its sentencing decision," she wrote. "Upon which it based its decision without giving petitioner a chance to view said evidence."

David Hwang

In her mind, the judge's transgression means her convictions should be overturned.

This month, U.S. District Court Judge Jesus G. Bernal accepted a magistrate judge's report concluding that the complaint is legally baseless and closed the case.

(In a prior request, she asked an unwilling California Court of Appeal panel to conclude that anti-child porn laws couldn't have been violated because the unconscious victims didn't pose, a necessary legal requirement she claimed hadn't been met.)

R. Scott Moxley’s award-winning investigative journalism has touched nerves for two decades. An angry congressman threatened to break Moxley’s knee caps. A dirty sheriff promised his critical reporting was irrelevant and then landed in prison. Corporate crooks won’t take his calls. Murderous gangsters mad-dogged him in court. The U.S. House of Representatives debated his work. Pusillanimous cops have left hostile messages using fake names. Federal prosecutors credited his stories for the arrest of a doctor who sold fake medicine to dying patients. And a frantic state legislator literally caught sleeping with lobbyists sprinted down state capital hallways to evade his questions in Sacramento.